"and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." Shantih.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Day 12 - July 11, 2009 (Moab to Telluride, CO)

Ralph was a little miffed that I got up and
rode without him yesterday.I should
have said something but I just wanted to ride early.I think the early morning before dawn reminds
me of the years I spent throwing papers.A friend and I threw the morning paper from 8th-11th grade and it was a
good money making job that did not conflict with any activities.All the papers had to be delivered by 6 so we
would get up about 4:50AM, roll them, stuff them into a gigantic bag and
then deliver them on our bikes.The
route was about 4-5 miles and I rode A LOT before dawn.My father would take us in the car if it was
below 20 degrees.I love the dawn but don’t like getting
up.So what’s unusual about that?I rarely regret the effort once I am up....

Ralph and I decided to do a little more riding along the Colorado R before heading to the state. Hardy and Daniel were sleeping in so we
left a little before 8 planning to return by 10 or 10:30 to start the ride to
Telluride.Slightly after our left turn
off US 191 we were on a deserted road.The road I took yesterday (to the right) had many people camping
but we did not see anyone for 10 miles. Then we saw alarge group camping at a picnic area and
packing up slowly.Intermittent views of
the river and the ubiquitous soaring cliffs on a flat deserted road make for
ideal biking.Several archeological
areas were noted on car turnouts so we stopped to read the details of the cliff
art.Easter island statues are pretty
impressive.These cliff wall scratchings
don’t look too impressive, more like vandals marring the surface of perfectly good
rock.I have seen a lot better gang
graffiti...But the riding wasperfect and we even got a tailwind when we
turned around.A very nice 25 mile
warm-up for the day.

We woke the boys and Daniel was planning to
ride today.We had been up and down US
191 several times and thought it made more sense to drive to La Sal, Utah and
start from there rather than ride up the busy highway at mid-day.It was about 30 miles and positioned to give
us a straight shot into Colorado.This
would be the first time we had ridden off the Adventure Cycling Association
provided maps.The Western Express route
had turned at Monticello to head to south to Delores and we were planning a straighter
shot into Telluride.We unloaded the
bikes at the two building downtown La Sal ( a post office and grocery), stocked
up on Gatorade, and hit the road with dark clouds threatening to the North.We had not seen a suggestion of rain since
Ely Nevada and that was all of about 20 minutes.The rain held off but 5 miles into the ride
we discovered they were paving the road to the Colorado border.They weren’t working but the roads were torn
up, tar was everywhere, and the roadbed was predominately gravel.I had the 35cc tires but Daniel was on the
6-13 with 28cc and Ralph on the Quattro Assi had 23’s. Bummer. Traffic though was non-existent.Vistas of the LaSal mountains were beautiful
to the North where the thunderclouds loomed and the scenery was finally changing
to a little bit more green.We finally
saw a tree!Of course along the Colorado
R there were trees but this was a tree with no visible means of support.You feel proud of this tree like of your son
when he gets a job and doesn’t need money from you to go to the beach with his
buddies.This will be a great bicycle
route AFTER they finish paving it.The
scenery is great.The wind did not seem
to be moving the clouds closer but put a crimp in the MPH.A slow road with a headwind is a grind.We left Utah with no
notice except a new road sign that we were on a Colorado state road.Three states crossed, the destination in
view.The twisting route through
theCanyons opened up into the Paradox
Valley, a gorgeous scene with the mountains of Telluride in the distance.

It was here that we had a minor snafu.We were snacking at the top of the descent to Paradox
when Daniel decided he would head on out because he descended slower.Ralph and I took a minute or two to get ready
and then started the glorious descent through the canyons to the floor of the
Paradox Valley.We didn’t see Daniel up
the road so when we made the final turn we picked up an incredible tail wind.Like in Nevada, what had been opposing us, turned
to our advantage on wide open roads.Both Ralph and I put our heads down and started pace lining at 30-35 mph
to catch Daniel.We would come up over a
rise and see a mile down the road--no Daniel.What had happened to him?Was he
trying to stay ahead of us with his new found cycling skills and better
fitness?Had he crashed on the descent
and slid over a cliff?Was he taking a
leak?We should have caught him by now
but we were having too good a time with the tailwind.We finally stopped in Bedrock, figuring he
would have stopped or we would have caught him by now.We grabbed some lunch fixings and Hardy drove
up with the Sag.Had he seen Daniel?No?If
he wasn’t behind us, where was he?We
sent Hardy back up the road to find him.He found him and the story was that he had made a wrong turn at the base
of the descent.There was a small road
turning left ( I hadn’t even noticed it) that headed to Paradox .No wonder we couldn’t catch
him!Case closed.Paradoxically, lost and found.

At the Bedrock store we met two couples
from Italy doing a mountain bike trip from Telluride to Moab.It was mid afternoon and they were headed to
Moab for the night over the La Sal mountains! One of their bikes had broken and they were waiting at the Bedrock store
for a tour operator to come bring them another bike.They could not believe how hot America
was!The women looked a little frazzled
as if their dream trip in America was their husbands(boyfriends?) idea and
needed a little more dream and a little less reality right at this moment.Apparently there are hostels in the mountains
for over-nighting and the scenery is incomparable BUTI detected a certain tension, that the ladies
had had about all the riding they wanted, and the guys were talking about
getting to Moab tonight.I could tell
that was not happening except in a car... I didn’t want to mention a brutal
headwind, OUR difficulties on the road(paving project) as well as the fact that
we had skipped the first 30 miles AND ridden on the road! They had just
descended on trails and had a 30 mile mountain bike slog against a brutal
headwind to even get to the canyons that lead up to the La Sal Mountains.We had gone around the mountains which is
certainly longer but climbing over 14,000 foot mountains wasn’t going to be
“easier”.They were going to be sleeping
somewhere besides Moab unless they took a car/truck.

Time to hit the road again. Naturita is
just up the road and joins busier roads.The Paradox Valley narrows down to urban congestion and soon we are on
Colorado xxx dodging RV’s.It’s only 20
miles to Norwood (uphill) but the bloom is off the rose--we are facing 50 miles
uphill to Telluride--it’s time to quit, put the bikes on the car and start
another adventure. Go to the condo.Admire the Colorado scenery.Hit
the hot tub and the summer on the slopes in the mountains.This desert crossing is done. The trip is
psychologically over.Time to move
on. I achieved almost nothing of what I intended to do when I visualized this trip. My "dream" was to ride across the country in one month and every night do a reflection: since 9/11, what has happened to America? The financial crisis? An existential event to me but this entire trip I have seen nothing but Michael Jackson retrospectives. Can he really be the most important person to die this month? We don't seem to have processed the importance of what the government response to the financial crisis has birthed. We are living in a Potemkin village, a make believe world like Truman. I don't know how to get from old world view to new world view but someone in the media or at the leadership level should be discussing it. The World is in the vise grip of the Limits to Growth projections: Pollution & population Up, Oil and food production-plateau, resources/rate of growth-down. It is time to address IEEE and all I hear are crickets. Same old same old from leadership. Just don't let this sucker go down on my watch and I'll slide out the back, Jack. Perhaps all disjunctive change is like this--a trend for 30 years--a discontinuity--the world is changed, changed utterly. Whether a terrible beauty is born is another question. I feel a certain revolutionary animus but coupled with a palpable inertia. As they say, conditions that can't continue-won't.